Seeing Myself in My Mother’s Addiction “When I was in kindergarten, she made me clothes and matching accessories by hand. I was the object of adoration for many years because Mom always went above and beyond when dressing her little princess. Mom grew up poor and told herself, ‘No white people will ever look at my children like dirty Indian kids.’ Those are good memories. But the memories of my mom shape-shifted into something else entirely for a period of time.” Helen Knott – The Walrus – December 2019
He tried to kill her twice. Now, she helps him rehabilitate domestic abusers “One day in 1980, Joe Fossella grabbed a bolt action rifle, intent on killing his wife Joyce. But the bolt was missing, so he couldn’t fire it. Fossella chuckled grimly to himself, put the rifle away and went to join his wife and son in the kitchen. It was the first time Fossella tried to kill the woman he loved, but not the last. Some five years later, he tried again.” Jon Azpiri – Global News – December 2019
The Great White Nope “I wouldn’t call Canada racist. I’m not being nice when I say that, I’m being polite. Canadians are like that. That kind of polite where you hear a racial slur and pretend it didn’t happen. Or you see some bro get too close to a woman and you walk right by because it’s not your affair. This is not a confrontational country. I remember one recent Toronto subway ride where a white workman fresh off some job site, boots muddy, reflector bib on, interrupted two men — one brown, one white — who were about to brawl. You could feel the entire car getting progressively more tense as their voices escalated. But the workman got between them. ‘Come on guys, we’re all tired. Chill,’ he said. And they did. And when it was my turn to get off, I thanked him. ‘It’s just what you do,’ he said. I assume he was from out of town.” Soraya Roberts – Longreads – December 2019
Driving Miss Dorothy “On a grey Friday afternoon, I show up at the driving school, housed in a small office at the back of an insurance company, for my first lesson. The instructor, Vincent, cheerfully tells me he has been teaching for 30 years. His students have gone on to become bus drivers and police officers, positions of driving authority. ‘You’ll be fine,’ he says. ‘I haven’t driven since 1985. I don’t want to kill anyone,’ I reply. He smiles, albeit with a little less certainty. After decades of adult life — marriage, a child, work and sundry — one of my biggest shames remains the fact that I never learned to drive. ‘Learn to DRIVE.’ I write it every New Year’s, along with ‘don’t procrastinate, be nicer to people, don’t eat chips, go the gym.’ I’ve never done any of it. Now, here I am, sitting in the front seat of car listening intently to Vincent explain how to stick the key in the ignition and start the engine.” Dorothy Woodard – The Tyee – December 2019
How to Make It As an Indie Cartoonist “Diligent and hard-working, beloved by editors as a consummate pro, Wright carved out a patchwork career for himself as a cartoonist in Canada, but he had long dreamed of making it big in America, where top syndicated cartoonists were wealthy celebrities. This was not an idle fantasy but a simple financial reality: the most successful Canadian-born cartoonists of that era were those who had left for the United States, be they Palmer Cox (creator of marketing phenomenon The Brownies), Richard Taylor (a fixture in The New Yorker) or Hal Foster (celebrated chronicler of Prince Valiant). If Wright could follow their paths, he wouldn’t have to keep juggling assignments and could focus his talents on one strip.” Jeet Heer – The Walrus – December 2019
Living Well Amid Waste: Wealth, Wages, and Food Insecurity “‘We’ve had to use the food bank a few times, but it’s been a while. We try not to, we don’t as much with the 50% racks now at work,’ Youden explains. She has two teenagers and a nine year old at home. She says that’s where ‘Flashfood,’ a new app that lets grocery stores post their discounted food online, comes in for her. ‘It’s not gone bad, but it’s close to code—close to the expiry date. It’s the only way I can provide healthy food for myself and my family.'” Heidi Janes – The Independent – December 2019
The Year in Video Gaming “I am fantastical—and I don’t mean to enrich myself with the positive connotations of such an adjective in naming myself as such, but rather I mean to say that I am one who conjures fantasies, a mesmer of a man, illusionist. My counsellor told me this during one of my sessions this summer, that in order to heal from the mental processes I was undertaking I must learn to ‘tame my illusions.’ To say I survived the year of all my years would be an understatement: 2019 was a ruination for me in all semblances of the noun.” Joshua Whitehead – Hazlitt – December 2019
